Life Sucks, Then You Write: Navigating the Difficult Through Creative Writing

Life Sucks, Then You Write: Navigating the Difficult Through Creative Writing

Do you live with grief? Has illness got your number and won’t stop prank calling? Are you fixated on the devastating state of the world or the catastrophe that is climate crisis? Are going through a divorce? Menopause? Both? The old saying, ‘Life sucks, then you die’ doesn’t offer much hope outside of a wry sense of comfort that everyone, at times, feels this way, and it’s an easy way out of a useful and solid complain. ‘Life sucks, then you write’ embraces the complain, encourages the complain and ultimately fine tunes it. Learn how to write through trouble in a safe and valuable way. Sometimes we need to practice distancing. Sometimes we need humour. Sometimes we need to be creative with form, to better get our points across. There are so many ways to turn the living-with into art, and writing creatively can be a profound way to process the suckiness.

In this three-hour workshop, emerging and established writers alike are welcome, so long as intentionality is present: if you intend to dig into the difficult and know that those around you are doing the same, this will be a safe space for all.

Part of the Winter Words program.

Biography:

Heather Taylor-Johnson’s works have been recognised in the Readings Prize for Fiction, ABR’s Calibre Prize, Island’s Nonfiction Prize and the Newcastle Poetry Prize. A South Australian Arts Fellow and recipient of residencies at Bundanon, Varuna and the Whitlam Institute, and overseas residencies at the Anderson Centre in Minnesota and the Keesing Studio in Paris, Heather’s writing explores themes of belonging, illness, and art. Her third novel Little Bit is a work of autofiction. Her seventh poetry book is I Lost Someone Then Found Them In My Body. She’s the editor of Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain, read widely in disability circles.

Community Centre Contact Details

The Summit Community Centre is open Monday to Thursday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm (closed on Fridays and public holidays). For any enquiries, please contact us on 8390 0457 or email thesummit@ahc.sa.gov.au during opening times.

Extreme and Catastrophic Fire Danger Ratings

When an 'Extreme 75+' or Catastrophic Fire Danger Rating is declared for the Mt Lofty Ranges, the Adelaide Hills Council Community Centre's will be closed, and all classes and programs will be cancelled without notice. Any monies paid will either be reimbursed or the course will be rescheduled for a later date.

Current fire danger ratings can be checked here: http://www.bom.gov.au/sa/forecasts/fire-danger-ratings.shtml